Flushing the crapware: A guide to reinstalling Windows 8 on a new PC

Did Santa bring you a crapware-infested PC for Christmas?

Installing a clean copy of Windows 8 on a new, crapware-infested PC is even easier than it was in Windows 7.

Andrew Cunningham

We may have a new version of Windows, but one story is still the same: buying a new Windows 8 PC means that you're also buying a bunch of OEM-installed software that you didn't ask for. This software ranges from the innocuous (Office 2010 demos) to the unnecessary (paid anti-virus trials, despite Windows 8's baked-in antivirus scanner) to the actively useless (WildTangent games and unending superfluous system tray icons).

Much of this software can simply be uninstalled with no harm done, but if something goes wrong with your PC and you need to reinstall Windows, all of that crapware will usually come right back with it. For years now, most OEMs have neglected to include a "vanilla" Windows install disk with their computers, opting rather to include some sort of "restore partition" with all of the crapware baked in—this makes it difficult to perform a truly "clean" install of the operating system. On some computers, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, these recovery materials dramatically reduce the amount of drive space accessible by the user.

To help out those of you who are planning to buy new PCs—or got them from Santa Claus—but don't want to deal with all of this junk, we're going to update our original Windows 7 bloatware removal guide for Microsoft's latest operating system. Parts of the following will be transplanted from that article where appropriate, but while the reasons for performing a clean Windows install are the same, the actual process is often surprisingly different.

Before you start

For the purposes of our guide, we will begin with a new PC that has just been taken out of the box and hooked up for the first time. Before we get started, you're going to want to download a few things, so don't reformat that hard drive just yet—turn on the PC and walk through Windows' first-time setup process. All you need to do is get to the desktop, connect to the Internet, and fire up a Web browser. This guide isn't going to walk you through preserving any personal data on the PC you're reloading, so it would be best not to do anything on this computer that you'll want to preserve.

Windows install media, product keys, and activation through the ages

Any discussion about installing Windows needs to start with the install media, and there have been quite a few changes since Windows 7. First, some history.

Traditionally, there have been two components to any Windows installation: the actual physical install media, and the product key used to either permit installation (in the case of Windows XP SP2 and older versions, and Windows 8) or activate an installed copy of Windows (Windows Vista and 7, which would permit 30 days of use before requiring activation).

In the Windows XP days, there were actually three different types of Windows product keys: retail (for licenses bought in a store), OEM (for licenses sold with new PCs), and volume license (for businesses who paid Microsoft a yearly fee to use Windows, Office, and other software on all their computers). Each type of product key also had a corresponding type of install media, and you couldn't mix and match them—a key for the volume-licensed version of Windows XP Pro couldn't be used to activate a copy of Windows installed from a CD bought from a store and vice-versa. It made reinstalling Windows on a PC bought from an OEM like Dell or HP difficult unless your PC actually came with OEM install media, which they often didn't.

By Windows 7, the situation had improved somewhat. As we detailed in our guide, "retail" Windows media bought in a store or downloaded from Digital River (the company that distributes Windows 7 ISOs to those who bought copies online) could be used in conjunction with the "OEM" keys on the bottom of new laptops. The OEM keys will normally go through and activate without issue, but even if the automated Internet activation doesn't work, Microsoft's automated phone activation definitely will. There were still differences between "full" and "upgrade" install media, but for what we're doing here—installing a full copy of Windows on a new computer that came with an OEM Windows license—they were unimportant.

In the rare occasion when your computer's manufacturer actually did provide "vanilla" Windows install media, however, things are even easier. This special install media, also given to Microsoft's partners to allow them to install Windows en masse on new PCs, checks for a special string in a computer's BIOS to verify that the computer was from one of Microsoft's OEM partners, and would not require additional action to activate if that string was found.

Enlarge/ Windows 8's new activation technologies mean that these are the only stickers you'll see on the bottom of a new PC laptop from the major OEMs.

Andrew Cunningham

This whole process is called System Locked Pre-installation (SLP), and it has evolved for the better in Windows 8; all Windows 8 install media now supports SLP-style activation, even the copies of the media bought in stores or downloaded from Microsoft's servers. When installing Windows, the media checks for the BIOS string, identifies the correct edition of Windows to install (either Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro), installs it, and activates automatically without ever asking the user for any input. This is why new Windows 8 PCs lack the traditional license key stickers found on Windows 7 PCs, opting to use just Windows 8 stickers instead; even when installing a clean copy of the operating system, users never need to bother themselves with product keys unless they want to install a Windows 8 edition different from the one that came with their machine.

Getting Windows 8 install media

This is great news if you've already got Windows 8 install media from some other purchase and also want to use it with a new PC: the USB stick or DVD you can make with the downloadable Windows 8 upgrade installer will also work just fine with your new Windows 8 PC, even if your upgrade license was for Windows 8 Pro and your laptop only runs Windows 8. If you haven't made Windows 8 install media, things get a bit trickier.

As detailed in our original guide, official, spyware-free Windows 7 ISOs could be downloaded directly from Digital River, making it easy to snag some Windows install media if you didn't have any from another source. Such a thing is sadly not possible for Windows 8.

We contacted Microsoft to see how owners of new PCs that came with valid Windows licenses could get install media, and it turns out that they do have some recourse—by contacting Microsoft from its support portal, users in this situation can request a "disk kit" directly from the company for an undisclosed "nominal fee." While they didn't specify a price for the disk kit, Microsoft is currently selling Windows 8 Pro upgrade downloads for $39.99 and upgrade DVDs for $69.99; that $30 price difference may be a decent ballpark figure for the cost of the media alone.

Drivers and software

The install media and activation process has changed quite a bit since Windows 7, but getting drivers is the same as it's ever been.

There's actually a bit less work to be done with Windows 8—new class drivers for devices like USB 3.0 controllers, Bluetooth adapters, and various sensors cut down on the number of things you'll need to download beforehand. Windows 8's in-box support for current Wi-Fi adapters is also pretty comprehensive, and once you've connected to the Internet, Windows Update can usually grab a usable driver for most graphics cards, even if it's not the newest or best.

Still, you may want to grab the latest drivers from your computer's manufacturer before you reinstall Windows—this isn’t necessary, but if you have the computer’s fully populated Device Manager window to guide you, it makes it much easier to identify and download the drivers you need. For a broad overview of the Windows installation and driver hunting processes, this part of our last “How to build your own computer” feature is a great place to start.

Enlarge/ OEM support sites make it relatively easy to look up your computer model and download the proper drivers.

Andrew Cunningham

The good news is that OEM support pages are typically a bit easier to navigate than your average motherboard manufacturer’s, and it’s a bit simpler to remember and search for something like “Dell XPS 12” than “B75MA-P45.” Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, Asus, and others all have pretty good support pages into which you can type your computer’s model name or serial number and operating system and get back all of the drivers you need for a new Windows install.

The most important types of drivers you’ll need to get a clean Windows install off the ground are graphics (or video), networking (both wired and wireless), and chipset drivers, and you'll probably want to make sure you get audio drivers too—make sure you grab those first. If there are multiple drivers available under each entry, you can check the Device Manager to see what kind of hardware you’re using, or you can just download all available drivers to make sure your bases are covered.

The other drivers you need will depend on the equipment installed in your computer, and this often varies from manufacturer to manufacturer—Lenovo laptops use a custom power management driver that you’ll need to look out for, and HP laptops often need a driver for their Quick Launch buttons to function properly. Fingerprint readers will usually also want their own drivers, and trackpad drivers (while usually not strictly necessary) can make trackpads more reliable and enable advanced functions like the Windows 8 trackpad gestures. This is especially true of the multitouch trackpads shipping with most Ultrabooks.

Once your drivers are downloaded, copy them to a USB key for later. While you’ve got a functioning system, you may also want to grab a few other programs for installation once your fresh copy of Windows is up and running. Different workloads will require different software, of course, but this should be enough to get most people started:

The Windows Essentials add-ons, which include a desktop email client and basic photo and video editors

Windows 8 includes the same anti-malware engine used in Microsoft Security Essentials, so for the first time in Windows history you don't have to worry about installing an antivirus product the first time you boot up the new operating system installation. Free products like AVG Free and Avast! still exist to fill that void if you prefer them, though.

125 Reader Comments

Despite plenty of comments in the last Windows 7 article, I'm not sure why this hasn't been updated to reflect the recommendations there.

For example, Double Driver (http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm) can backup all your existing drivers for re-installation after you've wiped Windows. Not only is it quicker than downloading all the files from the website, but it means you can still do a re-install even if the drivers are no longer available and you can also avoid drivers which don't add any value any more.

In addition, Ninite (http://ninite.com/) will automate the installation of about 30 different applications completely unattended, including all the ones listed in this article.

Also Advanced Token Manager (http://www.joshcellsoftwares.com/2011/0 ... r.html?m=1) is great for backing up your Windows and Office keys and then activating them once you've re-installed. I'm not sure if the former works bit with the Windows 8 licence key, but it's a handy tool for Office at least.

Articles like this remind me if why I remain a happy Disciple of Steve.

Yes. Microsoft has been total market dominator for a long time. Starting with XP, latest with Vista, they should have had a "Pure Windows"-campaign, educating users that crapware is not in their interest and discouraging OEMs from preloading that sh*t by only granting them the OEM discount if the ship vanilla Windows.

They did emulate Apple's all-control-belongs-to-us approach with Windows Phone 7 and later Windows (Phone) 8, so why not pay attention to the inital user experience?

I've spent way too much time of my life de-installing crapware from (usually) laptops of friends and family. And I've come to consider EVERY such software as inferior garbage, as good professional software doesn't need to be pushed on users like drugs.

In the rare occasion when your computer's manufacturer actually did provide "vanilla" Windows install media, however, things are even easier. This special install media, also given to Microsoft's partners to allow them to install Windows en masse on new PCs, checks for a special string in a computer's BIOS...

Quote:

This whole process is called System Locked Pre-installation (SLP), and it has evolved for the better in Windows 8; all Windows 8 install media now supports SLP-style activation, even the copies of the media bought in stores or downloaded from Microsoft's servers.

Aren't those license keys on the bottom of laptops called COA-keys?Wouldn't it make sense to name them like that to differentiate them from the "actual" OEM keys that are the same for a huge number of installations of a certain flavor from the same OEM and only used in the preloaded images, but not printed anywhere?

I was under the impression that for Windows 7 there wasn't a special OEM version like for XP anymore. (Yeah there were different versions, but Enterprise is like XP Corporate.) I was also under the impression, that the activation via SLIC, "actual OEM key" and xrm-ms license files is something the retail versions were also capable of. Actually, I reinstalled Win7 last year on my HP laptop with a retail ISO, the "actual OEM license key" and the xrm-ms license from the old installation.For that I also wouldn't call the OEM media "vanilla", but a "vanilla" Windows with appropriate activation files (OEM key + xrm-ms license) as a cherry on top.

I either misread the article completely here, have no clue what I am talking of or there's some sentences that call for an edit to increase factual accuracy.Mr. Cunningham, to the rescue please

Besides that, the loss of the COA keys strikes me as something I really do not like. Iirc (vague memory) Microsoft needed a hint from some courts in Europe to accept that its OS cannot be bundled to a single machine and that users need to be given the possibility to use a Windows license with a different computer.If there are now no more COA keys, I cannot reuse the Windows license from the laptop that I never wanted on some other computer or what? If so, then I at least hope that simplification is spared for the European versions...

One bazzaro thing that happened when I upgraded my HP notebook was that the brightness hotkeys stopped working after a few weeks. I don't know why, but HP decided to make those keys depend on a software patch to work. They have yet to offer that patch on windows 8, and the Windows 7 version of the patch fails. Almost 2013 and something like that isn't a simple out of the box feature yet.

Back in the day, the Office demo used to be the least innocuous of the lot. Crying customers every day trying to find the email after outlook had stopped working. I used to move users to Thunderbird or webmail.

Articles like this remind me if why I remain a happy Disciple of Steve.

Yes. Microsoft has been total market dominator for a long time. Starting with XP, latest with Vista, they should have had a "Pure Windows"-campaign, educating users that crapware is not in their interest and discouraging OEMs from preloading that sh*t by only granting them the OEM discount if the ship vanilla Windows.

They did emulate Apple's all-control-belongs-to-us approach with Windows Phone 7 and later Windows (Phone) 8, so why not pay attention to the inital user experience?

I've spent way too much time of my life de-installing crapware from (usually) laptops of friends and family. And I've come to consider EVERY such software as inferior garbage, as good professional software doesn't need to be pushed on users like drugs.

If there's one thing I hate more than Apple fanboys, it's Apple fanboys who spread FUD without realizing what's going on.

You people do realize that due to anti-trust DoJ ruling, MS can't dictate what OEMs can or cannot install? I personally consider browsers to be crapware but can you imagine the outrage if MS said OEMs couldn't install other browsers otherwise they would lose their OEM discount?

Articles like this remind me if why I remain a happy Disciple of Steve.

In reality it is more a question of avoiding the cheaper PCs. These OEMs need to cover their costs somehow and these unnecessary extras is one way. I would hope the higher end PCs come with more sane installations, otherwise they are just cheapening their image.

Despite plenty of comments in the last Windows 7 article, I'm not sure why this hasn't been updated to reflect the recommendations there.

For example, Double Driver (http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm) can backup all your existing drivers for re-installation after you've wiped Windows. Not only is it quicker than downloading all the files from the website, but it means you can still do a re-install even if the drivers are no longer available and you can also avoid drivers which don't add any value any more.

In addition, Ninite (http://ninite.com/) will automate the installation of about 30 different applications completely unattended, including all the ones listed in this article.

Also Advanced Token Manager (http://www.joshcellsoftwares.com/2011/0 ... r.html?m=1) is great for backing up your Windows and Office keys and then activating them once you've re-installed. I'm not sure if the former works bit with the Windows 8 licence key, but it's a handy tool for Office at least.

Key management is fine if it works. The rest I do not agree with at all. Using 3rd party to install apps or backup drivers will get you an unsupported configuration. The software publishers have not tested that approach, and in the computer business simply put if it hasn't been tested it won't work. You'd be chasing weird little problems for as long as you own that computer. It's ALWAYS less time consuming to just install the OS from scratch and then the apps from scratch. Take an image of the system once you get it just how you like it. Restore that if need be.

Also, drivers that come with an OEM system are usually out of date. Best to download latest drivers straight from the manufacturers. Just the drivers. Not full software suits.

If there's one thing I hate more than Apple fanboys, it's Apple fanboys who spread FUD without realizing what's going on.

Which of what I wrote would you categorize as 'fear', which as 'uncertainty' and what as 'doubt'? And thanks for keeping the tone civil. Especially on your first post.

Quote:

You people do realize that due to anti-trust DoJ ruling, MS can't dictate what OEMs can or cannot install?

I'm sincerely curious: can you provide additional info on why MS can't tie discounts to conditions like no crapware? That would indeed suck.

The browser case is a perfect example. I would have consider any oem bundled browsers as crapware. MS put pressure on OEMs for them to have a clean install of windows i.e. Preferential pricing and withdrawal of licenses but MS got taken to court and since them MS cant put pressure on OEMs in terms on what they can or cant install on windows.

MS can do so on windows phone exactly because they are nowhere close to a monopoly.

Crapware epitomises everything that is wrong with PCs. The PC is not YOUR pc, it belongs to the marketing and scamware and malware crowds.

"Oh, you live in a walled garden" they say about Macs and iPhones, etc. Yes, I have since the Mac came out and I spend 0% of my life worrying about that crap on my Mac etc.

I do also own two PCs, and I just live with all the crapware and stretch to install Avira on them and keep them up to date. They are crap, really really crap. After 45 years as a programmer, PCs have nothing for me anymore that I can't get 3x better on the Mac.

Reading articles like this makes me wonder why people own machines from companies that clearly hate them.

Articles like this remind me if why I remain a happy Disciple of Steve.

In reality it is more a question of avoiding the cheaper PCs. These OEMs need to cover their costs somehow and these unnecessary extras is one way. I would hope the higher end PCs come with more sane installations, otherwise they are just cheapening their image.

I've seen business PCs festooned with stickers and crapware, and at that point Macs are pretty competitive anyway. That is, of course, assuming you're in the market for a laptop, all-in-one or micro-PC.

What I don't get is that the Apple bag of tricks seems pretty easy to replicate: have a tightly focused line of products, vertical integration, and say no to extra crap and "features". You don't even, at this point, need your own OS, a customized Linux distro would work fine. (Though you'd have to ignore the inevitable nerd rage when you don't port it to run on toasters.)

Crapware epitomises everything that is wrong with PCs. The PC is not YOUR pc, it belongs to the marketing and scamware and malware crowds.

"Oh, you live in a walled garden" they say about Macs and iPhones, etc. Yes, I have since the Mac came out and I spend 0% of my life worrying about that crap on my Mac etc.

I do also own two PCs, and I just live with all the crapware and stretch to install Avira on them and keep them up to date. They are crap, really really crap. After 45 years as a programmer, PCs have nothing for me anymore that I can't get 3x better on the Mac.

Reading articles like this makes me wonder why people own machines from companies that clearly hate them.

Seems like Apple is the king.All the time i installed my Windows on my own, meaning i bought the software. And with that i had no other software than Windows on the computer.For an overpriced computer such as Apple i would not expect to get any other software than Mac OS.But i don't think the argument as valid in that Apple equals better. They are two different operating systems and can not mixed together.It is true you can be happy with a Mac, but i am happy with my pc as well.

The key is to be in charge of the software that is installed and today it is not fully clear if you really are. If you do need to buy a preconfigured PC you may as well ask about what software comes with the machine. Dell will tell as i asked a while ago about their all-in-one Pc.If you don't get an answer, don't buy it.

On my Win Pro 8 there's a factory reset option built in (its in the recovery settings under restore) that reinstates everything other than non metro apps. Wouldn't this be an easier option than actually reinstalling Win8 as surely it wouldn't reinstall the crapware?

Weirdest thing; I recently installed Windows 8 on a machine that just didn't recognize the installation cd or the installation usb stick. It skipped the cd and the usb stick only showed the Windows logo, but stopped there. The pc did recognize other bootable usb sticks and cd's, just not the Windows 8 ones. I ended up installing Win XP from an older cd, then used the usb stick to install Windows 8.

Despite plenty of comments in the last Windows 7 article, I'm not sure why this hasn't been updated to reflect the recommendations there.

For example, Double Driver (http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm) can backup all your existing drivers for re-installation after you've wiped Windows. Not only is it quicker than downloading all the files from the website, but it means you can still do a re-install even if the drivers are no longer available and you can also avoid drivers which don't add any value any more.

In addition, Ninite (http://ninite.com/) will automate the installation of about 30 different applications completely unattended, including all the ones listed in this article.

Also Advanced Token Manager (http://www.joshcellsoftwares.com/2011/0 ... r.html?m=1) is great for backing up your Windows and Office keys and then activating them once you've re-installed. I'm not sure if the former works bit with the Windows 8 licence key, but it's a handy tool for Office at least.

Yes, because I want to install MORE software after I just removed all the bloat (Ninenite or Double Driver no ty). This is a terrible idea. I know exactly where to get all of that stuff without 3rd party software. Especially since I just wiped my PC clean to get rid of 3rd party crap like that.

Yes, because I want to install MORE software after I just removed all the bloat (Ninenite or Double Driver no ty).

You don't install either of these programs.

biggerx wrote:

This is a terrible idea. I know exactly where to get all of that stuff without 3rd party software.

That's your call. You can sit there, click through 15 installers and watch the various progress bars - meanwhile I'll double click on one exe, go away for 15 minutes and come back to find all the software installed that I want and use ready to go.

biggerx wrote:

Especially since I just wiped my PC clean to get rid of 3rd party crap like that.

If you're likening the apps I suggested to the "3rd party crap" you get pre-installed then I'm not convinced you understand completely what they do.

Key management is fine if it works. The rest I do not agree with at all. Using 3rd party to install apps or backup drivers will get you an unsupported configuration. The software publishers have not tested that approach, and in the computer business simply put if it hasn't been tested it won't work. You'd be chasing weird little problems for as long as you own that computer. It's ALWAYS less time consuming to just install the OS from scratch and then the apps from scratch. Take an image of the system once you get it just how you like it. Restore that if need be.

I think you are being overly alarmist. I've done this route hundreds of times and never had any of the problems you say that I should be constantly chasing. I've also recommended it to others here, in real life and on superuser.com and no-one has reported any issues.

Now, naturally, that doesn't mean that this method is perfect, far from it. However it's not the fragile nightmare in a can that you make it out to be.

Dilbert wrote:

Also, drivers that come with an OEM system are usually out of date. Best to download latest drivers straight from the manufacturers. Just the drivers. Not full software suits.

The chance that the drivers are out of date is a good point, although if the PC is new or you already have spent the time previously updating the drivers, then you arent going to get much value from the OEMs website - even more so when a lot of them don't offer drivers unless you download the full software suite.

In case like that, I've never had any problems backing up the drivers I already have, but if you are overly concerned then it's sound advice.

(of course your suggestion doesn't work if the manufacturer doesn't offer the drivers for download any more)

Back in the day, the Office demo used to be the least innocuous of the lot. Crying customers every day trying to find the email after outlook had stopped working. I used to move users to Thunderbird or webmail.

That's the part I hate the most, the uncertainty part. On a somewhat newer computer from around 3 years ago, the office demo will open up word, but ask for a key. But I can X it out and it doesn't care. On other computers, it would then close.

On my Win Pro 8 there's a factory reset option built in (its in the recovery settings under restore) that reinstates everything other than non metro apps. Wouldn't this be an easier option than actually reinstalling Win8 as surely it wouldn't reinstall the crapware?

Probably not, as the image it would use would include how the OEM made it, and restore all the non Metro Apps. Notice too in the picture some of them are also Metro as well.

Do you have any information pertaining to MS not being able to incentivize OEMs to leave out crapware?

The DoJ an EU trials were about MS not bundling their crapware (IE).

it was also on how ms treated oems who preinstalled alternative browsers, which i would consider crapware. The ruling meant ms could not further dictate oems.

It had to do with MS forcing OEMs to include Windows on every PC, taking away any large volume discounts if they didn't (no big OEM pays $99 for each copy), NOT which browser they could install. Back in the days of 1998 Gateway included a disc of Netscape due to MS including IE with Win98 just to balance it out.

Crapware epitomises everything that is wrong with PCs. The PC is not YOUR pc, it belongs to the marketing and scamware and malware crowds.

"Oh, you live in a walled garden" they say about Macs and iPhones, etc. Yes, I have since the Mac came out and I spend 0% of my life worrying about that crap on my Mac etc.

I do also own two PCs, and I just live with all the crapware and stretch to install Avira on them and keep them up to date. They are crap, really really crap. After 45 years as a programmer, PCs have nothing for me anymore that I can't get 3x better on the Mac.

Reading articles like this makes me wonder why people own machines from companies that clearly hate them.

Or the average person can buy a decent normal laptop for $300, be perfectly happy, and see no value spending $700 more for a Mac...

Oh wait, you had to gloat about being an apple owner, on a thread not about apple, twice already, on Christmas of all days. Way to go keeping up the stereotype.

Crapware epitomises everything that is wrong with PCs. The PC is not YOUR pc, it belongs to the marketing and scamware and malware crowds.

Don't be silly.

The PC is still your PC, you just bought with some extra software installed on it by the manufacturer. Whilst I find the pre-installed stuff mildly annoying, I think its a bit much to consider it on par with the real scamware and malware out there.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.